


Behind the mask is another mask

by Asukan



Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Amputation, Bad Decisions, Emotional Constipation, Feelings Realization, Hatake Kakashi Has Issues, Hatake Kakashi Needs a Hug, Hatake Kakashi is Bad at Feelings, Hatake Kakashi is a Little Shit, Hokage Hatake Kakashi, Identity Porn, Idiots in Love, Jealous Hatake Kakashi, Love Triangles, M/M, Oblivious Uzumaki Naruto, POV Uzumaki Naruto, Pining, Post-War, Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi, Secret Identity, Self-Esteem Issues, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug, knksummer, knksummer2020, knksummerfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26203906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukan/pseuds/Asukan
Summary: As Naruto has recently lost his dominant hand, Tsunade gets him to start writing as a way to get used to only having a left hand. He can't expect the very busy Rokudaime to come along and feed him each day, now can he?Partly to spite her and partly to honour his beloved Ero-sennin, he starts writing on the next volume of Icha Icha. It's actually going somewhat well. But then he starts to realise that he keeps writing the main character, the suave and mysterious Kaikane, in a way that makes him really familiar.It doesn't make him any less confused when a charming and handsome reporter comes to interview the Saviour of the World. Sukea is also reminding him of someone, but he can't quite figure it out.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi/Uzumaki Naruto, Sukea/Uzumaki Naruto, Tsunade & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850467
Comments: 86
Kudos: 233
Collections: KAKANARU SUMMER EVENTS





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And on to Story VII of the KNK Summer event! 
> 
> This had the prompt Sick AU, and I decided to go with Naruto's stay in the hospital shortly after the war because this is an interesting time for both of the characters. 
> 
> I decided to add Sukea, because I just love making Kakashi suffer, don't I?  
> _____
> 
> As a friend put it: "you’re like a person in a trenchcoat full of WIPs" and where is the lie? But hey, all of these will be finished.

“Work has already started on your replacement arm, Naruto, but it’ll take some time,” Tsunade said while flicking through his charts. “You should get used to using your left arm and hand more.”

There had been a lot of technical babbling a few hours ago as they explained the many necessary procedures to link the manufactured arm with what remained of his arm to make it as real and lifelike as possible. It’d gone over his head, but he’d looked at the confident faces of Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura and knew he was in the best possible hands so he’d not worried that much about it. Of course, they’d do the best job that could be done. He knew that.

Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest in a pout, or well, he tried to since his left slid down since it lacked any support from the stump that was his right arm. Tsunade saw it, of course she did, and smirked at him. Naruto stuck out his tongue. At least he didn’t need two arms for that. “But Tsunade-baa-chan!"

"You should do some writing, brat,” she said and put down a pile of notebooks on his bedside table. “Your handwriting is awful and you might as well prepare for getting the hat. There’ll be a lot of writing once Kakashi names you as his successor. In many years from now, hopefully."

"Can't I just spar instead?" Naruto said, and he was totally not pouting in his hospital bed. “It’ll help me get used to it too!”

"When you fight you can use chakra arms,” Tsunade replied while shaking her head. “Unless you're planning on using them on a day to day basis you'll need to adjust to writing with your left. And using chopsticks."

"Chopsticks…" he said, and looked down at his belly as it rumbled. “I’ll need those for ramen.”

"Or did you imagine you'd get someone to feed you until you're used to your new arm? That’s months away still, at least."

It made him think of sitting at Ichiraku's, Sai and Sakura close by and laughing while he was fed by Kakashi-sensei, as the man’s eye was crinkled in a fond smile. It was a good memory and he felt a bit nostalgic over the far more frequent team dinners of the past. He doubted that Kakashi would want to feed him each day for months on end. Or that the Rokudaime would have time to do it. It’d been more than a week since he saw him last now that Kakashi was settling into his new role.

“Alright, you old bat,” he said and grabbed a notebook and pen. He opened the book, placed it in his lap and put the pen to the first page in a not-quite shaky grip. “I’ll write something.”

“Make it something good and I’ll buy you lunch in a few days,” the medic-nin said and left the room with a wave. “Don’t leave the hospital until my say so, or I’ll send Sakura after you. For now, if you’re out of your room by the time food is delivered, I will break your bones.”

He looked down at the page and grinned as he realised the perfect thing to write to annoy her. 

_____

_ The blonde shuddered in his arms and swore as Kaikane pressed her against the wall. Then she moaned as he ran a teasing finger back and forth between her legs, over her panties. He focused on the slight dip where she was the hottest and the cloth was growing wet. She bit into his neck at the touch and he- _

A knock interrupted his train of thought and he glared at the door. He’d only just figured out that the plot would start with the character needing to distract a wealthy lady as his companion snuck past. Naruto looked down at the notebook and realised that it would take ages for him to finish the story at this pace. At least the handwriting had gotten progressively better as he went along and was almost neat towards the end. Ero-sennin would be proud. He’d always wanted Naruto to pick up an interest in reading and writing, and since it was an Icha Icha book he’d started on, the old pervert would be even happier.

Naruto closed the notebook and hid it under his pillows. It needed to be a surprise for the old hag as she came by in the morning and the medic-nin would snitch to her, he knew it. Just because he tended to escape the hospital before he was discharged didn’t give them a reason to ruin a good prank.

“Come in!”

The door opened and a familiar face stepped inside. 

But it was not one of the many medic-nin that had been in and out of his room as they worked on ensuring that the nerve-endings in his arms would be able to be linked with the new arm. Instead, it was the brown-haired photographer who had helped them on an impossible mission years ago. He looked unchanged, with the same coat and scarf. It also looked like he hadn’t aged a day; the chiselled features were unlined but for the crinkles around his eyes as he smiled at Naruto.

“Hello again, Naruto-kun,” the man said. “Do you recognise me? It’s been a while.”

“Yeah!” he replied, smiling up at the man. “Sukea-niichan, wasn’t it? You helped us in trying to see Kakashi-sensei’s face!”

“I’m glad you remember, Naruto-kun,” Sukea said and walked over. “How are you?”   
  
“I’m good!” Naruto replied and stretched before moving his pillows around so he could sit up a bit straighter. “How have you been, Sukea- niichan ? What brings you back to Konoha?”

“I’ve been good, thank you,” the photographer said and sat down on the bed next to Naruto’s. “And I’m here for a scoop, of course.”

Naruto laughed. “For a scoop, huh? Like that time a few years back?”

“I’m sure it’ll be more successful than trying to see Kakashi-san’s face,” the man said and chuckled. “I didn’t know providence could favour a man like that.”

“It’s some sort of curse or something,” Naruto said. “I’m never gonna see it. We tried a few more times after that and still no luck. Closest I got was the top of his nose.”

Sukea glanced at him and arched a brow. “Why do you want to see his face so badly?”

Naruto frowned at him. What a stupid question. “It’s Kakashi-sensei’s face! Of course, I want to see it.”

The man held his gaze, though a twitch to his lips betrayed his amusement. “But why?”    
  
“First it was because it was secret and I wanted to know. Him being so stingy about it made me curious if he was hiding something.”   
  
“Like what?” Sukea said and gestured at his own chin. “An ugly scar?”   
  
“Maybe, or like really big lips or something,” Naruto said and shrugged. “I don’t know, he was just so mysterious and cool about it all and I wanted to know, y’know? We all did.”

Sukea fluffed the pillows behind him and leaned back against the headboard with a graceful twist. “And then?”

“What do you mean?”    
  
“You said  _ first _ , so I assume the reason changed?” Sukea said with a knowing smile. “Or was that it?”

Naruto blushed and looked away. “Well, no, but I ain’t telling you everything!” 

The older man shrugged. “That’s fair. Would you mind if I asked you the questions I’m here for then?”

Given that the man was a sneaky bastard it seemed wise to know what he signed up for before agreeing. “What kinda questions are we talking about, Sukea- niichan ?”   
  
“No one missed how you saved the world during the Fourth Shinobi War,” Sukea said and pulled out a notebook of his own. “I figured I’d come here and ask you a few questions about it.”

“The war?” Naruto looked at the man whose steady gaze made him a bit nervous and he didn’t know why. “Why would anyone want to read about that?”

Sukea chuckled at that and shook his head. “Who wouldn’t want to read about the saviour of the world?”

Naruto felt his cheeks grow hot and he looked down at his left hand, picking at the blankets. “I’m not a saviour or anything. I just fought ‘cause it was the right thing to do.”

The other man said nothing. Naruto glanced up into warm grey eyes and felt a bit weird at the intensity of the stare. It hadn’t been long ago that eyes would slide off him, focusing on other, better things. It felt strange to have strangers look back. He stared into eyes that reminded him of storm clouds and his belly fluttered when Sukea didn’t look away. 

“What is it?” Naruto muttered, glancing away and yet still feeling flustered. 

Sukea said nothing, but the smile on his face grew soft and it made the butterflies in Naruto’s belly worse for some reason. He frowned at the man. Why did he look at Naruto of all people like that?

He tossed a pillow at the man to get him to stop staring. The former ANBU caught it easily, but it did make him stop looking at Naruto like he was something… something nice, like he was worth looking at. 

“Ah, sorry,” the man said and pulled out a pen from his coat with his left hand and put it on the page. “Let’s get back to the questions. I see you’ve lost an arm since we last met. Was it during the fighting?”

“Well, sorta. It was while knocking some sense into a stubborn bastard’s head,” Naruto said and rolled his eyes. Sasuke’s plan had been something truly idiotic. Enslaving humanity. Really, Sasuke? And he called Naruto a fool. “You know how those geniuses can be. Idiots, honestly.”

Sukea laughed at that. It was soft and melodic, much like how the older man spoke. “Idiot geniuses?”   
  
Naruto gave a decisive nod. “They think they’re so smart and then they say stupid shit. So you gotta beat some sense into them.”   
  
“That’s one way of being diplomatic, I suppose,” the photographer replied and started taking notes. “Will that be your way of settling disagreements once you’re Hokage?”   
  
“Nah, I’ll just talk to people then. Can’t mess with the peace that Kakashi-sensei is working on upholding now. That’s not the way to peace.”

“Isn’t most of that peace down to your efforts in the war though?” Sukea asked, looking at Naruto with that fond look again. “The Hokage just needs to keep the peace you ensured.”   
  
“Oh, there’ll be some arguments still, I’m sure,” Naruto said and scratched his neck as he felt it heat up. Then he remembered that he used the wrong arm for it and swapped with a wince. It was strange how he could still feel his right hand sometimes. “But sensei is really, really strong and super smart so he’ll be fine. The other Kage won’t be able to mess with him! Not that Gaara would ever try to, but the other’s couldn’t even if-”

He stopped himself as he noticed that Sukea had frozen in place, staring ahead. “Sukea-niichan?”

“Ah, yes, sorry,” the man said with a cough. Then he looked back to Naruto, pen at the ready. “Carry on. What is the way to peace then?”   
  
“Working together and forgiving each other,” Naruto said as he thought back to Nagato’s words. “We gotta see past the differences and realise we’re all people. That we all share the same pain and that doing the same thing over and over won’t help anything.”   
  
“That will most likely be a lot easier now after we all fought against a common enemy, right?”

Naruto was about to answer when there was another knock on the door. Probably the food Tsunade had promised because Naruto was starving. Sukea glanced over and put his notes away with a sigh.

“Come in!”   
  
This time it was a medic-nin with a tray of food. Naruto’s stomach rumbled as he caught the scent of fried pork. He grinned widely as he saw the large serving. “Thank you! That looks great!”

“Of course, Naruto-kun,” she said. Then the medic glanced over at Sukea with a frown. “We don't allow unauthorised visitors in this room.” 

The photographer fished out a fancy looking scroll from his coat. It had the Hokage’s official seal on it. “I have special permission from the Hokage.”

The medic held out a hand for it. Sukea got up from his perch on the bed and wandered over. “Here you go.”   
  
After the medic had looked over it, the tension in her shoulders vanished and she nodded. “Very well, I’ll let the other staff know. But for now, Naruto-kun needs food and rest before we run some more tests. You can visit again tomorrow, Sukea-san.”

“Please, let me stay a bit longer,” Sukea said with wide eyes. “I just need-”   
  
“I’m sorry, but no,” the medic said in the same no-nonsense tone all Konoha’s medic-nin shared. Naruto had met most of them by now and was quite familiar with that voice since they all kept telling him it was important to rest. “I will not jeopardise Naruto-kun’s recovery for your questions. You can return tomorrow.”

Sukea looked like he was about to argue, but then the glare on the young medic’s face made him falter. The man sighed but left with a friendly wave to them both.

“I’ll visit again tomorrow, Naruto-kun,” he said from the doorway. “Ramen, wasn’t it?”

He was gone before Naruto had time to answer.

_____

_ Kaikane pulled away from the gorgeous blonde with one last lingering kiss. She tasted delicious, but he had a mission to complete. Not even her blue eyes could pull him away from his duty for long. _

_ “Come back here, Botan,” the woman said, voice hoarse and sultry from bitten off screams. “We’re not done yet.” _

_ He shook his head and caught her hand to press a kiss to the golden skin. “I’m sorry, my lady, perhaps another time.” _

_ As he walked up to his partner a few minutes later, grey eyes narrowed in annoyance. _

_ “You’re late.” _

_ “I’m sorry- _

Naruto looked down on the page and nibbled on his pen in thought. He’d yet to figure out who Kaikane was as a character. A spy, yes, but he had no personality yet. It made it kind of hard to write his dialogue when he wasn’t pretending to be Botan, the bumbling nobleman. 

The characters drove the story, as Ero-sennin used to say. They had to be interesting for the reader to root for them. He would also always say that the main character in any volume of Icha Icha had to make a woman weak to the knees. That part was the difficult bit. How would Naruto know how to write an attractive man?

Naruto had tried to write himself at first because his master had also said that it was easier to write what you knew. Meaning that Ero-sennin wrote himself into the main character in Icha Icha. The old pervert had fancied himself a ladies’ man. Naruto wouldn’t know since he’d never been allowed to join him in the brothels and information gatherings during their travels. Anyway, since Naruto had no experience with the whole romance thing it felt awkward to write himself into the story as someone who made people fall for him.

A childhood crush on Sakura and an accidental kiss with Sasuke did not make him an expert. Not even close. He didn’t even know how to flirt or how to notice that someone was interested in him.    
  
It didn’t seem like the typical Icha Icha reader would enjoy a story with a clueless main character. 

He tapped the pen against the page. Then he grabbed another notebook from the pile and scrawled at the top  **_What makes a man attractive:_ **

_ 1\. He’s got to be handsome _

Then came the question of what made a guy handsome. Elegant or rugged? Broad or lean? When Naruto made his male version of the Sexy no Jutsu he’d included a lot of different male figures since he knew that different forms all had a different appeal.   
  
Probably better to leave the looks for later. He didn’t need to know how the hero looked to write his dialogue, after all. For now, he just knew that Kaikane was tall because he needed to lean down to kiss the lady.

_ 2\. He’s got to be strong and brave.  _

That was a given though, wasn’t it? The hero was always strong and brave in these stories. Maybe he went about this in the wrong way. Maybe the hero should fit the story too. In this one, Kaikane would be a spy of sorts. So he would need to talk himself out of any tricky situation. 

Naruto nodded. That made sense.

_ 3\. He’s got to be charming. A smooth talker. Able to talk anyone into anything. _

Charming, smooth and mysterious was the way to go. Easygoing and cocky, because he knew he could get away with it. At least when Kaikane was on a mission. 

He picked up the other notebook again and continued the line.

_ -I’m sorry, a golden minx-  _ (he’d heard this phrase before and he knew it meant flirty woman) -  _ crossed my path and I got distracted. _

Naruto widened his eyes and dropped the pen as if it was burning. He could not model the new Icha Icha protagonist after Kakashi-sensei. No way in hell. His perverted sensei would figure it out and he would never let Naruto live it down. 

He crossed over the lines with a huff and threw the notebook away. Obviously, he needed to think about this some more.

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sukea starts to feel familiar.

_As he walked up to his partner a few minutes later, grey eyes narrowed in annoyance._

_“You’re late.”_

_“I’m sorry-”_

Naruto stared down at the page, tapping his pen against his lips in thought. He'd been looking at the page for almost an hour, growing frustrated by how the words refused to come to him. He knew what he wanted the characters to do because he had the plot down in his head. At least in broad terms. The tricky bit was getting them there. And to figure out how to write it all down.

That wasn't the end of his troubles. It was also harder than he thought to come up with a way to characterise his protagonist. Ero-sennin had once complained about this and Naruto had just rolled his eyes and said he probably only needed to have a big dick for an Icha Icha reader to be happy. That comment had resulted in Naruto being forced to proofread _Tactics_. 

The protagonist in Tactics had been hung though, so he’s not sure it disproved anything. The purpose, according to his master, had not been to show him Ritsuke’s penis size. It had been to teach his ignorant ass how to read properly and also to make him appreciate true literary genius.

It hadn’t helped much with the latter, to Ero-sennin’s ever-growing despair, but it had at least helped with the former. Kanji wasn’t as difficult these days. Not at all like in the Academy where all his teachers assumed someone else had sat down and taught him. 

No one ever had. He'd done the best he could on his own. It'd been a battle to try and master those squiggly lines. He'd had tutors before the academy for hiragana and katakana. Strangers showing up at his apartment with cold eyes, harsh words and stinging hands if he did something wrong. 

The experience hadn't left him with a fondness of reading. He hadn't thought much about it before. He'd not needed to read well to understand the important things in life.

Sometimes though, when Sai and Sakura were discussing old scrolls written in a spidery hand or thick tomes with tiny characters there was a pang in his chest. They knew not to talk with him about books, and he understood why, but sometimes he wondered what it'd be like if he'd known to read properly from an early age. Would Kakashi-sensei still have needed to dumb things down for him? Would Yamato have been happy to talk about plant books and not just how Naruto liked to look after potted plants? Maybe he would be able to bond with his teammates more since he knew they all loved to read. They were all really smart. They would sit down in the library or in a tree and read. 

In comparison, Naruto understood things by doing it. It didn’t come naturally for him to sit still and read. He knew he annoyed them sometimes because of it. He’d grow restless and bored most of the time.

It made it a lot more difficult to write a book.

It made a lot of things more difficult. 

Still, Kakashi had once said that perfect should never be the enemy of good. The people behind the mission desk hadn’t been too impressed with this justification for a mission report that was dripping mud, but his lazy sensei had vanished before Iruka could get truly angry.

Maybe it applied to writing as well? He could always go back and edit, he assumed. Anyway, this was something he was working on to mess with Tsunade. It didn’t need to be perfect the first time around. 

Naruto nodded and put pen to paper, awkwardly scribbling down a line with his left hand.

_“I’m sorry,” he said with a smirk. He walked up to his companion with a smile as he straightened his clothes and combed through his hair after that gorgeous blonde had raked her fingers through it._

Keikane still needed to be easygoing and confident. A charming, capable and mysterious hero to entice both the ladies and the readers. He also needed to not sound exactly like Kakashi-sensei with his many shitty excuses. Maybe a bit more flirty?  
  
But he shouldn’t flirt with his grey-eyed partner, not about the woman he just had pushed up against a wall. That made no sense. Keikane might be into both women and men, Naruto hadn’t decided, but he wouldn’t tease the guy with a woman he’d just been with if he was into his partner as well.

_“A golden minx desperately needed my attention.”_

_His companion rolled his eyes. “You and your women, Keikane. Focus up. This is important.”_

_“Don’t worry, I needed to distract her to let you sneak past. You got into the office, didn’t you? And you got time to go through our target’s things. I’ve not forgotten why we’re doing this.”_

_Sugita sighed and started walking ahead, shaking his head with a muttered curse._

_Keikane grinned and strolled after him, hands in his pocket. The man was far too easy to tease._

_“Jealous, Sugita?”_ _  
__  
__The younger man shot him a look over his shoulders, looking supremely unimpressed. “Of you? Never.”_

Naruto sighed and dropped the pen with a wince. It still felt awkward to write with his left hand. Every character took three times longer than normal to write and they all looked weirdly slanted. 

He stared down at the page with a thoughtful frown. At least he could read them. That was something. And Tsunade had seen his scrawled reports back when she first made Hokage. She’d be able to read this. 

The next scene was a bit more unclear. The two needed to steal an item, but he'd not figured out what the item was yet. Not in detail.

He grabbed the other notebook, flipped past **_What makes a man attractive_** with a wince, and started plotting out the rest of the story. The two needed to infiltrate the evil lord's castle in order to steal something. 

Naruto thought back to Jiraiya's advice about writing what you know. A scroll then. But if they managed to get it back this quickly, where would the plot go? 

Ah. Of course.

_They steal back the scroll in the castle. See it's a copy. The real one is still missing and they have to figure out where it is. Keikane and Sugita have to find the evil lord's daughter and seduce her to see if she knows anything about what the real one is. The daughter is known for enjoying the upcoming festival Keikane and Sugita goes there._

_Keikane sees the blonde from the first chapter again._

_They spend some time together as he and Sugita try to track down the daughter._

_Sex happens?_

It probably did need to happen for the sake of the typical Icha Icha rating. He'd managed to avoid writing all of it in the first bit. Maybe he should read through the scenes in the Icha Icha books Jiraiya's old publisher had sent him after the war. To get an idea for how the old pervert used to write them. No way was he asking Kakashi about it. It was bad enough when Iruka had tried to give him the talk. What was it again? Kunai and scrolls? 

The nice girls from the brothel hadn't been ninja so they had used other terms for it. And been more direct about it. They’d even used drawings and toys to help illustrate. It had made way more sense to him than when they’d been given the dry and clinical text. They’d offered him some food when he’d offered them smiles. Later on, they had talked to him about how to seduce men and what made them weak. It’d been great for his Sexy no Jutsu. 

Having Kakashi think he was entirely clueless would just be awkward and his Hokage would, most likely, go out and buy him books about it to avoid an embarrassing conversation. And what would Naruto do with books about where babies came from? They would hardly help him in writing good erotic scenes.

_To do: figure out how to write pervy scenes. Icha Icha? Ask at the library? AVOID SAKURA-CHAN! Also Sai_

His stomach rumbled and he looked up at the clock. It was getting close to lunchtime. He’d started writing just after breakfast. At this pace, he’d never finish the chapter before he could show Tsunade.

There was a knock on the door and Naruto hurriedly showed the books under his pillows and made sure they were entirely covered. Those nurses could be nosy. 

“Come in!”

The divine scent of Ichiraku ramen tickled his nostrils as the door opened. He hummed happily as Sukea walked inside holding two take away bags in his hands. Proper food rather than that thin vegetable soup with rice he'd gotten yesterday.

“Hello again, Sukea-niichan,” he said and shoved another pillow behind his back to make it more comfortable to sit up. “How are you today?”  
  
The man nodded in greeting as he closed the door behind him with a nudge of his hip. “I’m good, thank you. And you, Naruto-kun?”

“Starving!”

Sukea smiled at that and held out one of the bags for Naruto to grab. “Well, I have a cure for that. Ichiraku’s miso ramen with pork cutlets and extra everything.”

Naruto cheered and realised his shoulders had moved as if to clap his hands together. He let his outstretched hand do a grabbing motion instead. "My favourite! How did you know?" 

The man shrugged and placed the offered bag in his lap. "It was easy enough to get the right order once I told the man that I was ordering for Uzumaki Naruto. Seems like you're a regular?"

"Yeah, of course I am!" Naruto said with a grin. "The old man makes the best food ever! You'll see once you have yours."

"If you say so, Naruto-kun," Sukea replied and sat down on a nearby chair with his own bowl held up to his nose for a perfunctory sniff. He hummed, seemingly pleased, before picking up a slice of beef and eating at a much faster pace than Naruto managed. 

Naruto opened the bag and removed the lid before awkwardly balancing the squishy bowl on his lap as he leaned forward and carefully lifted food to his mouth to keep the sheets clean. The medic-nins would ban Naruto from having ramen in the hospital if even a drop of broth splattered where it shouldn’t. Tsunade had threatened him with that the last time Iruka-sensei visited with a bowl.

Sukea glanced over at him with a slight frown. “Can I help in any way? You’re right-handed, aren’t you? It can’t be easy to handle chopsticks with your left.”

Naruto shook his head, glaring down at his left hand. “No thanks, I’ll manage. I got to learn at some point.” 

It was tricky and his hand felt stiff and a bit achy after writing for so long. But he refused to show it. 

Once he’d managed to enjoy the first bite, Naruto glanced over at his companion with a grin. “So?”

"Passable,” the man said as he'd already eaten a third of his serving. "Not sure if it's the best dish I've ever eaten."

Naruto huffed. Some people had no taste. "What could possibly be better?”  
  
“I like seafood,” Sukea said. “Like sushi. I can bring some tomorrow.”  
  
While nowhere as good as ramen, sushi was way better than hospital food. And the company would be nice. “You gonna show up each day?”  
  
The reporter nodded as he dug through his satchel for his pen and notebook. “I managed to negotiate a few more days of asking you questions over lunch. I’d forgotten how strict Konoha’s hospital staff were. I’ve been away from the village for too long.”  
  
Naruto laughed. “Blame Tsunade-baa-chan and Shizune-nee-chan for that. They weren’t happy with how it was run when they got back to the village.”

Sukea raised a brow at that. “Really?”

“They made things better,” Naruto said. “And they did a lot to get more people trained in medical techniques. Sakura-chan’s been working on improving it even more. They’re amazing like that. Fixing things, you know. Most of us aren’t.” 

The man hummed and wrote something down in his book. "Would you say that it's rare that a ninja gets to fix things?"

“Well, we’re meant to be weapons,” Naruto said. “I hope to change that."

Sukea hummed. "You're referring to that peace you talked about yesterday when we got interrupted?"

"Yeah," Naruto said before eating a slice of pork. "I promised people I'd find a way to bring peace to the ninja world, you know. So I gotta do my best."

"That's an extraordinary promise to make, Naruto-kun," Sukea said as he scribbled something down. "Bringing peace is far beyond the paygrade of most ninja. So far no Kage has managed either. Not lasting peace, at least."

Naruto shrugged and stuffed his mouth to give himself some time to think. "Well, some of my precious people asked me to do it. Ero-sennin tasked me with it and it was the only thing he gave me to do. My dad also told me he had faith in me to find the solution. Meant I couldn't disappoint them, right?"

"I doubt you could make anyone disappointed," Sukea said with a knowing look and a soft smile. "But I understand."

Naruto felt his cheeks flush so he glanced down at his food and twirled some noodles around his chopsticks to distract himself. "Did you ever make someone a big promise that was hard to keep?"

Sukea gazed at him in silence for a bit, and there was something intent on his face before it cleared as the man tilted his head with a shrug. "I've made and broken many promises. That's the curse of being a ninja. But it's taught me what's important and how to make an oath I can keep. And then...” 

He trailed off and glanced down at his hands. Naruto hummed in encouragement. But Sukea didn’t continue talking, so Naruto said nothing and focused on eating. The other man seemed lost in thought, and by now Naruto had learnt that forcing someone to talk wasn’t always the best idea.

After a few more bites of food, Naruto turned to Sukea again. The other man was still not looking at him. “Sukea-niichan? What happened then?”

There was a wry twist to the other man’s mouth as he met Naruto’s eyes again. Something about it was familiar, but Naruto didn’t know what. “I made an important one for myself, for once. And I intend to keep it.”  
  
“What was that promise about?” Naruto asked. Then he saw the tense lines of the other man’s broad shoulders and he worried that the other man would up and leave. Their agreement was about Naruto answering questions, after all. And he knew that former Anbu agents tended to be secretive about their past. Getting Kakashi to talk about himself was like drawing blood from a rock. Yamato and Sai were almost as bad. “You don’t have to tell me if you won’t want to, y’know.”

“That’s not it,” Sukea said and looked out the window and spoke to one of the great big trees outside. “I have a precious person who has an ambitious dream. And during the war, I pledged to be there to help them should they ever struggle on their path.”

Naruto frowned at the man. “I thought you said the promise was for you, Sukea-niichan?”

“It was and it is,” he said with a chuckle that plucked at the back of Naruto’s mind, glancing back at Naruto with the sun outlining a high cheekbone. The long eyelashes cast a shadow on one grey eye and it appeared darker than normal. “I realise it seems strange, but it’s the first promise I made for myself in a long time. Is it that strange that I want that for myself? To help someone else?”

Naruto knew he was probably staring at Sukea, but he couldn’t look away. There was something about him that caught his attention. It was warm and open and it made his belly flutter.

“Naruto-kun?” The other man asked with a hint of a chuckle. “Is it really so that weird?”

“Sorry,” he said and winced as he realised just how obvious he must have been. “That’s not strange. It’s really awesome, y’know? I think that precious person of yours is really lucky to have you!”

Sukea laughed and shook his head. “That’s kind of you, Naruto-kun. But I’m the fortunate one.”

When the other man said nothing more on the matter, Naruto drank up the broth before handing over the bowl to Sukea so he could throw both of their bowls in the trash. As the man walked away from him, Naruto took the opportunity to stretch out his hand as much as he could. Flexing and closing it into a fist a few times to get the blood pumping over stiff joints. 

As the older man turned around again, Naruto put his hand back in his lap and smiled widely. “Were you also in the war, Sukea-niichan?”  
  
Sukea nodded as he walked back over to Naruto’s bedside. “As I said years ago, I used to be a rank and file ninja. While I’d left that life behind, I couldn’t ignore my training when the entire world was threatened. I was part of the Third Division.”  
  
“Oh, the one sensei lead.”  
  
“Exactly,” Sukea replied and sat back down again. He put his notebook away and Naruto realised it was about time for his daily testing. Tsunade had told him they’d need to regularly make sure that his body would accept the prosthetic so it meant a lot of bloodwork. 

Naruto didn’t want the man to leave him just yet though. It had been days since he had any social visits. People were so busy after the war. With preparations for new things and with grieving their dead. Naruto didn’t want to disturb them, but he missed talking to people. 

“Was it hard to fight again, Sukea-niichan?” He asked, and drank some water to give Sukea a chance to answer without being stared at.  
  
The man looked at him with the same wry twist to his mouth as before. “The fighting part came easy. The rest? The rest was harder.”  
  
Naruto hummed and nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I felt people die on my way to the battlefield. I hated it.”

“Is that why you fought so hard, Naruto-kun?” Sukea asked in a voice that was even kinder than normal. ”Because you felt lives get snuffed out?”  
  
“I didn’t want them to fight and die to protect me,” he replied, frowning at where his hand rubbed his stump in an effort to avoid the intense gaze. “If they all died, what use would there be? Sure, I’d be alive, but the world would be gone. I couldn’t accept that.”

Sukea leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of him with a slow nod. “An empty world…”  
  
“I’ve been alone before, Sukea-niichan,” Naruto replied and managed to smile through the lump in his throat. “I didn’t wanna be alone again.”

“I can understand that Naruto-kun,” Sukea said and reached out to pat Naruto’s shoulder.  
  
Naruto glanced down at the hand, a bit surprised by how it didn’t bother him. He didn’t like it when strangers touched him. They had started to do that, after Pain and even more after the war. He didn’t understand it. They used to push him away before so his instinct was to flinch away. Maybe he’d been around Sukea long enough for that not to happen. 

Sukea removed the hand once he noticed Naruto’s stare and Naruto almost reached out to grab it. Instead, he looked at the man with a sheepish smile. “Is it selfish of me?”  
  
Grey eyes widened for a split second before they closed in a smile. “To not want to be alone?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“It’s human, I think,” Sukea said and smiled at him with those warm eyes again, making Naruto’s belly flutter like before. Naruto frowned slightly and held his hand over the spot, as if keeping the sensation in. “And you saved the entire world, you protected everyone at the battlefield. And, if rumours are right, you almost died for us all. In light of that, I think you deserve some selfishness.”

Naruto felt his cheeks flush and he reached up to scratch at them, trying to hide the red from the former Anbu’s eyes. “Really?”  
  
“Really.”  
  
Naruto blushed and moved the hand to rub over his eyes. He had never known what to do with praise. “Thanks, Sukea-niichan! I’m sorry for bringing up the heavy stuff like this, y’know? I didn’t mean to tell you these things. But thank you for listening.”

“Don’t worry about it, Naruto-kun,” the man replied with a knowing smile. “I asked you about it. And if I can help you by listening, then I’m happy to lend you an ear. I’ve found that it’s often easier to talk to a friendly stranger, or at least someone you don’t know well, than someone closer to you. And hey, it means I get a better understanding of you for my article. Even if I’m not going to print anything too personal.”

Naruto hummed. It felt easier to talk to Sukea than someone like Iruka, Sakura or even Kakashi. He didn’t want to disappoint them. Or burden them. He had promised them all to never give up, to keep on fighting. It seemed silly and selfish to burden them with his doubts and insecurities. He had to be stronger than that. Uzumaki Naruto was someone who carried on and pushed through. He didn't want them to think less of him.

Still, it would be nice to talk to someone like Sukea who wouldn’t judge and would leave in a few days. And the man was very kind and sweet. Perhaps it was because he was a reporter and used to getting people to want to talk, but it felt like he’d known him forever. Naruto also wanted to figure out why he seemed so familiar. 

Mind made up, he held out his left hand for Sukea to shake. “Sure, if you promise to show me what you’re planning on printing once we’re done. I'm not having you tell everyone my deepest, darkest secrets!”  
  
His hand was grasped in a firm, strong grip as the purple markings on Sukea's cheeks scrunched up in a wide grin. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to make it clear that Naruto's thoughts about not reaching out are his own. He's been living alone for a long time. He's used to being the one people depend on when they're emotionally vulnerable. Or well, he's used to promising them to fix something. It's not always easy to break that pattern and tell a friend when you're sad. And I think a part of Naruto is terrified it'll chase people off.


End file.
